Who do I save?
“I worry more about saving my son from the drug menace than keeping my daughter safe. All males are intoxicated or high by noon in my community. That way they don’t feel hunger. But we are.”
Mauna has to keep a watchful eye on her teenage son. When there is no male role model in the home, she tries hard to discipline him and show him the correct path. Addiction to drugs and alcohol is prevalent in this community mainly due to severe economic hardships and a sense of restlessness from years of life as Internally Displaced Persons. Men numb their hunger in this manner but the women and girls remain left to their own methods of finding food. Growing their own crops and rearing animals helps but not during monsoons.
Maanthoppu.
Batticaloa, Sri Lanka
2020
Mauna has to keep a watchful eye on her teenage son. When there is no male role model in the home, she tries hard to discipline him and show him the correct path. Addiction to drugs and alcohol is prevalent in this community mainly due to severe economic hardships and a sense of restlessness from years of life as Internally Displaced Persons. Men numb their hunger in this manner but the women and girls remain left to their own methods of finding food. Growing their own crops and rearing animals helps but not during monsoons.
Maanthoppu.
Batticaloa, Sri Lanka
2020